#so i decided to write in my notes app instead of docs

[love4ng1e]

𐙚 A different approach on the void !!

Hiii, guys!! ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 I haven’t been super active on here lately because I’ve been doing a little experiment, and unsurprisingly, it worked. So I thought I’d share it with you all! One random Sunday, I had this thought: “You know what? I want to do things my own way.” I’ve never really liked following rules. Can you blame me? Instead of affirming for the void or trying to “enter” it, I decided to flip the script. I asked myself, “What if I’ve already entered the void and manifested everything I want?” And that’s exactly what I went with. Now I’m gonna share with you every step I took.

# ACT I: PICK A DAY IN THE PAST.

Pick a date. Any date. It truly doesn’t matter. It could be something meaningful, like your birthday or something totally random, like March 18 (no offense if that one holds significance for you). I chose March 1st.

# ACT II: SCRIPT IN PAST TENSE.

Write (Notes App, Google Docs, etc.) as if you’ve already manifested everything you’ve ever wanted in the void. Feel free to express it however you like. Joyfully, robotically, or anything in between. You can list the things you manifested (like your dream car, your ideal job, etc.) or simply state that all your desires have come true if you’re not sure what to write.

# ACT III: AFFIRM AS IF YOU FORGOT.

Affirm that you've already entered the void and manifested everything that you desire, but you forgot because, well, you're only human. Now, you're remembering that you did so.

Example - "I already entered the void." (It can be as simple as that).

# ACT IV: BE DONE WITH IT.

You're done. No more wishing or trying. It's over. Walk with the confidence of someone who's conquered Mars. Think with the brilliance of William James Sidis. Act as though you hold the power to shape destinies.

I woke up one day, and everything I had scripted was real. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I could make a separate post on how exactly that happened. If anybody is interested, let me know!! Mwah, Angie. - 𝜗𝜚

[ludolka]

Update on what I’ve been doing since I got home from work at like noon

I have in fact not been drawing like I wanted to, instead I’m completing a side quest lmao

So I got this notebook in Finland and I wanted to use it for something since I buy so many notebooks and sketchbooks that I don’t use bc I’m afraid of ruining them-

As you all know, I love organizing, that’s like one of the biggest joys in life for me, so I decided I’d write down all my comic ideas in this notebook that I have scattered around in both my notes app and google docs

I’m on page 21 now, all pages fully written with comic dialogues and I’m only done writing down like half of all of my ideas :’) I’m having the time of my life though and I’ll update yall with the page count once I’m done

[asexual-spongebob]

What are some tips you have for writing fanfics?

I have some! I hope these are helpful!

Tips for writing Multi-Chapter fics, as someone who has written multiple:

Have an idea of how many chapters + the word count range for the chapters. Some fics have shorter word counts but have more chapters (like my fic, The Waves That Lap The Shore for example, was usually in the 1k to 2k range when it came to it’s chapters, and had a lot of chapters. However, my other multi chapter fic, Wail Of The Siren didn’t have many chapters, but was longer when it came to word counts for chapters. The chapters usually being 2-5k words. Every fic is different.

I also recommend having some kind of plan. I doesn’t even have to be a detailed one. It can literally be just a document full of thought dumps. My planning/outline for Wail Of The Siren was literally just a document on my notes app full of my ideas.

If you’re about to scrap a scene, put it in a document for scrapped scenes and dialogue. That way, later on, if you decide that you want to include that scene or dialogue, you wouldn’t have to rewrite it from scratch, you can just copy and paste from the scrapped scene document. I can think of so many times that I’ve scrapped a scene or piece of dialogue and ended up using it later.

Write the story you want to read.

The first draft will not be perfect. It’s okay if it’s a bit of a dumpster fire.

You don’t have to write in chronological order! Have a scene/chapter you are really excited to write but hate having to power through others just so you can write that one? Write it first! You can fill in the blanks later!

If you are having trouble finding words to use, then go to sites like word hippo and thesaurus! I’ve found some great words there.

It’s okay to use said, sometimes a character just says something and that’s okay.

Show instead of tell, like instead of saying, “she was angry as she watched him walk by, wishing she could punch him” can say “rage boiled inside of her at the sight of him, she clenched her hand into a fist and clenched her teeth as she watched walk by, wishing she could just punch him in the face.”

DO. NOT. TYPE. THE. FIC. DIRECTLY. ONTO. AO3’s/WATTPAD/FF.NET’S ETC’S TEXT BOX! You run the risk of your hard work being washed down the drain if you forget to save it. Or if it gets deleted. Always write your chapters somewhere other than your fanfic site’s text box. You can literally use anything. Google doc’s, libree office, word, your notes app, hell even apps that’s intended for grocery lists. Always have them saved somewhere else.

Oh and I also recommend using a spell checker to fix any grammar mistakes! You can find them online if the program your using doesn’t have one!

honestly i love answering asks like this. Thx 4 sending! :)

[chandelier-s-notebook]

I have once again outlined something I have no intention of writing ever. So instead of shoving this in my Notes App doc and hoping that I will one day decided to write this: please enjoy 300 words of Landoscar piss kink in bullet point format.

The race ends

Oscar jumps out of the car

He’s been using the drink all race, because of course he has

During the cooldown room, all he can think about is using the restroom

Then on the podium he gets distracted by Lando

Then they get off and Oscar rushes to the bathroom

Lando follows him

Oscar gets to the urial, and as he tries to pull himself out of his fireproofs Lando presses his front to Oscar’s back, and his hands grip Oscar’s waist.

“Don’t.” Lando nips at his ear. “Hold it.”

Oscar whines. He inhales deeply. “I have to go.”

“Hold it.”

“How long?”

“After media. My driver’s room. Before we do all of those briefings.”

Oscar breathes in deeply.

“Can you last that long?”

He nods. “I can do it.”

“Good boy.”

Lando caresses Oscar’s hip.

“Let’s just put his back, mkay?”

Oscar whines as he nods.

Lando’s hands on him are so nice as he tucks Oscar’s cock away.

Giving him a little squeeze before removing his hand.

“Fuck.”

“You can do it.”

“And if I can’t?”

“Then we’ll try again.”

Lando leaves Oscar to splash water on his face and make himself presentable.

Media is torture, thank you very much Lando

Doesn’t help that he continues to drink water.

He’s desperate by the time he makes it to Lando’s driver’s room

He’s panting for it

Lando sits with his legs spread, and Oscar perches on his thighs.

Oscar grinds into thigh

He really really wants to cum

He pisses instead

“Fuck baby. You’ve made a mess of yourself.”

Oscar whines into Lando’s neck. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I thought I could hold it.”

“You did so good for me. Lasted as long as I wanted you too.”

Then they get Oscar out of his mess

Lando fucks his ass

Cum

Lando and Oscar go to the team briefing meetings

Lando hands Oscar a full water bottle

“My hotel later?”

Oscar drinks.

[myrmyrtheorca]

Curious fan anon here again! I finally had time to read all about the pallid flame and it's got me really intrigued! Thank you for writing about it!

Now for some questions!

What do you most like about the pallid flame yourself? I love that it looks smoke like! And that it seems more based around the nervous system in a way?

Another question! What program/website is it that you write the info sheets in? I may wanna use it too, someday... 👉👈🥹

All these asks keeping me company during vacation T///T thank you so much and welcome back friend! Don't feel in a hurry to consume my stuff, I'll be here anytime 🩵

To answer your question... here's the thing, the ACTUAL n.1 favorite thing about the pallid flame is a huuuuge spoiler but I'll throw some bits of info that can get you a little close.

I didn't include it in the doc as to not cause confusion to the reader, but there are some hints about a certain level of sentience of the flame itself. Like, the fact that it activates the moment it feels its host is in danger: it does it through the five senses, but how does the flame decide if something is a threat or not?

That depends on the skill level of the host. As a result, that means the flame is somehow able to judge whether the threat is something worth its activation, or in other words, if the threat level surpasses the host's level of combat skills.

So the flame can judge outside stimuli and put them in perspective with its host's capabilities. Can it do anything else on its own? Well, the Failsafe System is a thing. The Flame takes over the nervous system and gives the body a directive to follow: save yourself at all costs. It does as soon as consciousness leaves the mind. Is it a natural reaction to the body being in danger, or something more intentional? After all, it can't survive without its host.

It's not a Dying Will. It's an order.

All of this will be explained in the story, if you have the patience to wait for it to be revealed 😖 other than that, I agree with you on the fact that the Pallid Flame being related to the body more than the mind (as it's the case for the Dying Will flame). The way it flows inside the user to make themselves a weapon instead of being a weapon! This is no way a diss to canon - I love canon to bits, and I like to adhere to it as much as possible.

Tackling the second question, it's called Notion and it's free! It's a very customizable app that you can use for a great number of things, from organising your writing to taking notes to planning blog posts. You can use it through multiple platforms, both pc and on android, and your content is always accessible since it's saved in your accounts database.

Specifically, for both my character sheet and my info sheet I use a template called Atlas that you can download from Notion's site. There are lots of useful free templates to browse from, but I found Atlas to be the perfect mix between easy to use and nice-looking.

If you need help with setting it up, feel free to hit me up, even if it's with a burner account I won't mind! I found it not that hard to use but do let me know if I can be of help.

As always, thank you for passing by! It's always a pleasure 🩵🩵🩵 writing that info sheet was a pleasure and it helped me immensely as well!

[toxicanonymity]

WIP Last Line.

Ty for the tags @quaritchscupquake and @daddy-dins-girl

PSA: The next thing I post might be the longest thing I've written without real smut. There's some brief fantasizing, but it's mostly dark, creepy vampire fluff and Joel being our poor, sweet, clueless babygirl. It takes place within the first fic. To avoid misleading advertising, I'm posting the last non-spicy line lol.

Earlier, he was worried about you sleeping too much. Now you're so peaceful, and the feeling of you in his arms is so soothing, he doesn't want to wake you up. 

No pressure tags: @dark-scape @umnitsa @beskarandblasters @aurorawritestoescape

TW me being super disorganized under the cut / how the sausage is made

Here's the thing. . . I've been writing 🎉, but recently I've been even more chaotic about it than usual -- and my usual antics already included not having folders and not always naming my documents 🤡. Now I'm using google docs and my notes app and have multiple docs per WIP (more than usual lol). I have aggregately fic-length content on multiple characters. But they need so much work to "finish," and that's the least fun thing. So I keep writing different things chaotically instead instead of editing and tying them off. It felt like it took all day to "edit" stuffing last Saturday. The good news is it turned out well, so I feel more confident in the rest of them. The bad thing is it took so long it doesn't make me want to edit.

(sorry if this stresses you out, but you can't fix me lol).

In looking at the different pieces of vampire, I decided the flashback really needed its own part. I at least made sure these were all named for you lmaoo.

[scoutofmymind]

I adore your writing so much, what is your creative process if you have one? How do you outline your drabbles? How do you decide which direction to go?

Thank you my darling! I appreciate you reading 💕 honestly, my creative process lives inside of a dab pen and a liquid IV around 9 PM, and my notes app — I write everything in my notes app and transfer it to Google docs only to get a word count lmao. Sometimes I’ll write little ideas, or small stepping stones for each section, and somehow it tends to all fall into place.

Sometimes I scrap everything, or half, and start over, which probably would happen less if I took a bit more time to go through each step and direction instead of flooring the gas, but oh well! I find those instances make us better writers in the end.

[send-me-a-puffalope]

quick question. when you first got the idea for papillomatosis, did you plan out all the chapters? or did you just open a google doc and decide everything from there? :)

i planned out every chapter (some just generally, others every scene in the chapter) via spamming my friends’ dms. multiple of them. against their will. and then at that point, i actually decided to try my hand at writing because i had such a distinct vision of so many of the scenes in my head. and then i compiled all my thoughts into my notes app, cleaned it up, and then pasted it into google docs (and began writing starting chapter 3 and worked backwards💀)

tbf, many of the chapters, like chapter 7 which literally just had “Circus Baby stares at Vanessa through the suit for the whole night while Vanessa is stuck in springlock suit”, completely changed by the time i got around to actually writing them. Especially Elizabeth’s motivation and her relationship with the other children. Elizabeth was originally going to be a lot less malicious and creepy in the original, instead being pressured by the other kids into killing Vanessa. But i wanted Elizabeth to play a bigger part in the ending, especially since the story was always focused around the dance between Vanessa and Elizabeth.

[angst-is-love-angst-is-life]

Ok. Now I gotta get the director’s cut on your fic “12 Hours”

Was it a result of another sudden hyper focus? Or were you planning it and letting it marinate in your brain awhile?

12 hours

Ah yes, thank you for asking!

It’s funny you ask that specifically because it’s kind of— both? I initially only wrote the last 2 hours and the style was very different than what ended up in the final draft. Either way, at some point after writing the first 2; my brain was like “Hey! How about we write ALL TWELVE HOURS LIKE THE TITLE SAYS! WON’T THAT BE FUN!?” And I cried because yes, it would be fun but it would also take wayyyy more time to finish. Alas, at some point I wrote the first six hours before getting stuck on the break. So at that point, it had been marinating for a while. And then Flash day rolls around and I really wanted to post something for it— wrote the entire break and then some, also editing parts of the last two hours. I wrote it from 12-4 am and did not sleep that night. But it was worth it because I posted something for Flash day. So now that that’s been answered— onto the commentary!

I wrote this entire fic in my notes app, there’s an outline in my docs somewhere but it really wasn’t followed at all.

The hour by hour format was my genius way to simultaneously get into Barry’s current headspace AND gave me a set amount of writing needed for each one which was extremely helpful.

His kidnapper had attached each of his wrists to the front bar of a cosmic treadmill and given him one command in a monstrous voice: “Run.”

Some background: in this universe, instead of training and motivating Barry to get faster, Zoom decides the most efficient way is to make him run all day every day. This concept is somewhat adapted from my age old idea of season 1 Thawne putting Barry in a hamster wheel and just forcing him to get faster whether he wants to or not. Obviously the hamster wheel, while funny, isn’t really the right vibe but the premise is similar.

And it’s never mentioned in the fic; but he is getting faster. Zoom’s plan is working and Barry may as well be a dead man running because once Zoom gets what he needs from him; there’ll be no need to keep him alive this time around.

Originally, Jesse and Jay weren’t going to be there because there was no reason for it. Both narratively and in-universe but both of those changed in a way. Narratively, it’s fun to play with Barry’s guilt and self sacrificing tendencies. In-universe, it’s just one more way to keep him trapped. He’s not going to run away if he knows innocent people would be hurt because of it.

But even when this weak and close to powerless, he could still protect them. No matter how exhausted he was, something inside Barry gave him the courage and energy —anytime Zoom made so much as a move toward the other two— to direct their captor’s attention to him. It always left him worse off, bruises and sometimes cuts littering his body. It didn’t matter, he could heal even if it still hurt. Always better me than them.

I’ll admit. This was, in part, my whump gremlin ass hijacking a little bit. BUT it’s those self sacrificing tendencies I mentioned. It’s honestly a huge part of his character so I’m very glad I put it in. Also, that innate need to protect people which is arguably the most prominent trait of his character. Ah poor Barry.

A wave of weakness came over him as the dampeners took effect. It slowed him down just enough to prevent phasing.

Although hostages are an excellent way for Zoom to keep Barry trapped; he’s not stupid enough to just leave him to his running. I knew I needed something that could both prevent his escape and keep him at the treadmill— while allowing him his speed. Lightbulb moment as I remembered the cuffs Thawne used in 1x17 that appeared to do exactly that.

02:59:00

Help me.

02:55:59

Please. Someone come find me, please—

02:54:59

I have to keep going. I can’t. I don’t have a choice.

This was a fun little tidbit I decided to add in to emphasize that Barry is really Not Ok right now. These kind of thoughts happen extremely often and are similar in wording each time. He’s tired, he’s done, he’s been waiting on a rescue for who-knows how long and has pretty much lost hope on that miracle. He’s not quite accepted his fate but that makes the lack of choice so much worse.

Get up or he’ll hurt them. Legs shaking so violently, he got to both feet, began to run, and caught up with the treadmill.

Another very intentional choice. Not sure if it’s canon that did it or maybe it was another fanfiction not sure (or hell— maybe I’m projecting. Who knows)— but I love making Barry’s main motivation protecting others. Perhaps it’s the general lack of self preservation he seems to have. Sparing himself of more pain wasn’t enough, his companions would pay for it if Zoom caught him not running (it happened before and that was the one time he couldn’t protect them. Well, Jesse in this case.) and that’s what he needed to keep going.

There was one last rule. If he stopped on the first run, he wasn’t allowed to feed himself. If he stopped on the second run, as he just had— Zoom would leave him cuffed overnight, and Barry had to sleep like this.

Just some more comfortability motivation for him to keep running because Zoom’s a dick and so am I

With that reminder, he released a dry sob between pants, with energy he most certainly didn’t possess. Sobbed because he’d been here for so long, and he was so tired, and he just wanted to go home.

Crying would have been a waste of energy before now, Barry doesn’t let himself do it until the 12 hours is up.

The penny landed on heads for unhappy ending sorry (jk, it was just the vibe)

Last thing I’ll leave you with is I was this 🤏 close to adding a rescue. And I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about writing another chapter with just that…

Fanfic Writers: Director’s Cut

[kindlythevoid]

1 and 2 for the ask game perhaps?

Oooh, okay!!

I kind of just went off, so in the interest of space:

1. What story (stories?) are you writing rn that you’ll most likely publish next? ∩(´∀`∩)

Hopefully? One of two stories.

The one that I started earlier is my Fallout 4 fic called The Stapinski's, which is my take on a Fallout 4 Minutemen runthrough with Nate and Nora surviving. I know that traditionally in the story Nate was in the military and Nora was a lawyer, so I'm keeping that, except Nate is, like, a surgeon/doctor/medic and Nora has ASPD. It'll mostly be written in a series of snapshots, with one longer intro story and then parts of the main Fallout story that I think would be interesting/changed with these versions of Nate and Nora. However, I'm unlikely to post it until I do another runthrough of Fallout 4 which... idk when it's gonna happen, ha ha!

The second story is my Baby Driver x Fast and Furious crossover fic. There is a chronic lack of Baby Driver fics in general, but especially ones in this crossover, which is devastating. But this one fic had Brian and Debora as siblings and I really just sunk my claws into that concept and started typing away. I don't really have a solid plot, per se?? It's super self-indulgent and takes place after Baby gets out of prison and... at some point in the F&F franchise (probably after the 4th or 5th movie, there are just so many, ha ha!!)... but I'm having fun with a more Debora-centric fic and the interactions between the everyone!! (I also may or may not have stayed up reading an official handbook on classifying prisoners for this fic?? I sincerely doubt it'll affect the plot in any way, but I did and if anyone is curious, it's thought that Baby went to Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison.)

Realistically? The next installment of Rewind, which as of right now is called In Every Stitch and Seam. I am technically still on break, but it wasn't meant to be an indefinite break, oops!! It's just. So Ridiculously Long. This one I am more or less sure of the direction and have a vague notion of what I want each chapter to look like, but writing it has gone... slowly. I'm still working on chapter 6 (out of possibly 21) and I want to be farther in before I start posting so that they don't have too many loose ends if I accidentally drop the ball later on. (Sorry, y'all!!)

But yeah, probably not anything soon. I'd love to keep posting, but, unfortunately for me, nothing is finished, ha ha!

2. What story (stories?) are you writing rn that will most likely linger in your head for an undetermined period of time? (*´▽｀*)

Soooo many stories. I really really want to get around to posting soooo many stories that I have in my docs and my notes app and what-have-you. I really do have so many fics that I haven't posted, it's devastating. (Each one being unashamedly self-indulgent and written so many years ago definitely is not contributed to that, no, not at all.)

I'll focus on written stories instead of just story ideas... I have a few Assassin's Creed ficlets that may never see the light of day. One's, like, a Hallmark AU fic?? With light undertones of mafia?? It's soooo olddd, smhhhh. (∩∀`)/ There's also, like, a genuine songfic that I wrote forever ago. That I could absolutely be persuaded to post, but it's part of a series and the rest of the series wasn't finished and at this rate probably never will be.

This really just descended into early cringe me, but back in the day when I first started reading fanfics, I would notice the billion and one fandoms tagged in a single fic, never read them, but assume that somehow?? they were including each of them in a coherent story??? or something?? (Tbf, I think some of them were, and kudos to everyone who was able to do it, but for the most part I'm pretty sure they were just requests or something) Anyway, so lil ol' me decided to do something like that, too. And the best way I could think of this, for some reason, was to put all my fandoms, each and every one, in a single neighborhood. Each fandom had a house, everyone had a backstory, there were multiple stories detailing the history of each house and one story about my "latest" fandom moving in. I kept track of literal hundreds of characters as people in every day jobs in the town. It was insane. I still pass by it in my docs sometimes and smh. In conclusion, no, this will never see the light of day.

Okay, that was a lot, but absolutely why I made this game, so thank you so much for asking!!

Kindly,

The Void

[mary-is-writing]

Hey so, funny story, this kinda happened to me before.

The year was august. I'm just starting my second year of middle school and I transfered to a new school to spend my last two years there. This was a fancy private school, and we got ipads as a requisite to study here. So my parents bought me an ipad, and all students had one, and we used it instead of computers 99% of the time to do things like videos and presentations and whatnot. The school gave us for free a bunch of apps that'd normally be pay to use as well as blocking the app store so we wouldn't download games and get distracted (they used to do this only once at the begining of the year but once a classmate figured out the password to unlock it with an algorithm and the spots the fingers left in the keyboard and when the teachers figured this out they started changing the code every few months or so)

Senior year comes and I get an idea for a new wip, as usual. I start writing it in the notes app of my ipad, in one of the apps the school gives us. The year goes by. I write up to five chapters + a prologue, and each chapter is like at least 1K words and at best maybe 3-4K. Its not great but it's a first draft, it doesn't have to be.

I graduate. The app restriction is lifted and the apps the school gave us are removed. Cool, whatever, I can use my ipad now freely I guess.

Then on the ride home it hits me like a truck.

My writing. My writing.

The app is gone. I can't download it again cause it's a pay to use app. Everything I once wrote there is gone forever. FIVE WHOLE CHAPTERS GONE LIKE THAT.

(Later on I realized I backed up like 2-3 chapters on my email so it wasn't a complete loss, but before knowing it my world was destroyed for a few days)

I rewrote what I lost and swore off writing on digital for the entirety of high school. Then I got an accident in which my backpack, where my notebook with my draft was, got wet by the rain and the notebook almost got ruined, so I decided hey y'know what maybe I should do both, digital and traditional, and also send the docs to myself via email in case my laptop ever dies or something.

[duckprintspress]

Round Table: What Software Do You Find Helpful for Your Writing Process?

We asked our authors what software helps them write - and got a range of answers! 

Contributors: Adrian Harley, B. T. Fish, D. V. Morse, not-gwaenchanha, theirprofoundbond, Tris Lawrence, unforth

*

Discord 

Tris Lawrence: Lately Discord is becoming critical because that's how I'm making notes for my series bible with a combination of private folders and channels to split out information

(B. T. Fish +1, unforth +1)

Evernote

not-gwaenchanha: I use Evernote for all the ideas, makes them easy to sort. One notebook (or even a notebook stack) per WIP. It lets you interlink notes, use tags to sort stuff. It also has a webclipper browser extension which lets you copy websites or parts of them straight into the notebook which is super helpful for research. Free version can be used on two devices.

Image from the Evernote website...they didn't have anything writing-related, apologies.

Google Suite (G Docs, G Sheets, G Keep)

Hermit: Gdoc for me because my writing tends to happen on my couch/at the coffee shop and thus on my phone a lot (I am totally the person who brings a wireless mechanical keyboard to the coffee shop). I also make use of Google Keep for research notes. And a notebook with some frixion pens.

D. V. Morse: At the moment, I'm tracking things in Google Sheets, which is great (except there's a lot of functionality from Trello that I'm missing).

not-gwaenchanha: I use gDocs to write, mainly because I don't have to worry I'll lose everything if technology decides it hates me, but it also allows me to write from my phone and easily share with my beta. Google keep is where all the "darlings" go when I kill them a.k.a scraps of text that are good but don't fit. It's got a nice integration with google docs, you can send stuff there straight from the doc from the context menu and then move all the scraps into one "scraps" doc 

(unforth +1, theirprofoundbond +1, Adrian Harley +1)

Microsoft Word

Adrian Harley: I have been using the same laptop since 2012, and when the hard drive gave out in 2020, my independent computer repair shop was kind enough to reinstall the 2010 versions of Microsoft Office so I didn't have to pay a subscription for them. It's what I'm used to. The "styles" function lets me find chapters easily, and it's easy for me to leave comments for myself when I see an issue and don't want to resolve it right at that moment. I think the free Microsoft Word, whatever they're calling it, has those basic features too, though I'm not positive.

(unforth +1)

Miro (formerly RealTimeBoard) 

not-gwaenchanha: it’s an endless white board. Great for visual plotting. You can put in sticky notes, tables etc. I also like to upload images to it to make a private moodboard for the story.

Image is from the Miro website.

Notes App (IOS, Android)

Adrian Harley: I prefer to use the Notes app on the go. It's just as easy as Google Drive, it doesn't freak out if I'm not connected to the internet, and I have to copy and paste the text from any portable software to my document record of choice anyway. 

(B. T. Fish +1, unforth +1)

Notion

theirprofoundbond: There is a desktop version and an app, with syncing between both. You can use it for writing but I prefer Google Docs for that. Instead, I've built myself a wiki, basically. My "Writing HQ" contains: current editing projects; word count table to track my daily word counts; gallery of my WIPs, which is pretty and motivating, and each "card" contains metadata and promotional info for each project; calendar for my posting schedule; and a gallery of completed work. Notion is incredibly customizeable with great documentation to help you get your head around all the possibilities. It'd be a great home for a worldbuilding bible, too, I think!

(B. T. Fish +1)

Scrivener

unforth: I use Scrivener for organizing my notes and research, its flashcard system is great for that.

Tris Lawrence: I live and die by a combination of Scrivener and Sprinting. Scrivener was the first piece of software I found that works the way my brain works, from the scrap documents to writing in the margins to index cards, and being able to organize it roughly but have it export pretty when I need it.

D. V. Morse: The main software I use is Scrivener, right up until it's time for critique/beta reading. Then everything goes into GDocs. I've experimented with mind-mapping apps with variable results.

Adrian Harley: Scrivener was incredibly helpful for my novella when I decided to turn it into a novel. It let me keep track of different drafts by chapter, so I could note which versions my writing group had already looked at. It also was easy to add in the "flashback" narrative that I've interspersed throughout the book.

Image from the Scrivener website.

SmartEdit Writer (formerly Atomic Scribbler)

B. T. Fish: It's a free word processor that has all the functions of Scrivener that I need and none of the confusing extras, is default dark mode, tracks my word count by scene and by entire project, and allows me to document and organize my writing projects from one-shots to novel length works. I use Discord for collaboration and have occasionally used Notion to organize writing prompts and story bible information, but most of that I also keep in Smart Edit, so it ends up being a bit redundant.

Image from the SmartEdit Writer website.

Spotify and Pandora:

not-gwaenchanha: because music helps my brain switch into the writing mode

unforth: I definitely use Pandora, music helps a lot

(theirprofoundbond +1)

Sprinto

Tris Lawrence: I cannot survive without a timer somewhere, because that's how I can force myself to focus in 20-30 minute spaces. 

StayFocusd

unforth: it's an extension that shuts off internet access for a specified amount of time, and it helped me not get distracted by All The Social Media. (I don’t use Chrome anymore, but when I did…)

@/porcupine-girl chimed in from the comments to mention that Leechblock is a similar extension for Firefox!

Trello

D. V. Morse: I've always loved Trello for organizing workflow and really need to get on that again. 

Tris Lawrence’s Word Tracking Spreadsheet

Adrian Harley: I have also tried a bunch of different software to track word count, because Number Go Up makes my brain happy. Can I recommend Tris's spreadsheet? That got me through a few months.

Tris Lawrence: I am slightly laughing that I didn't call out my own tracking spreadsheet. Probably because I've been SO focused on notes lately that I haven't gotten new words in uhhhh months. But obviously, yes, when writing I live and die by that as well! I love my charts. I loved the charts on the old NaNo site and wanted them year round. I wanted to be able to set goals and see how I was doing. I wanted to do comparisons. I wanted to see writing across weeks, months, and years, and it helped me learn that zero days and fluctuation were OKAY.

Image from Tris's 2022 spreadsheet blog post

*

What is your favorite software to use to help you write? We'd love to hear from you!

Have a question for us? Drop us an ask anytime!

Love what we do? Consider supporting us on Patreon or ko-fi.

Note that none of these comments should be interpreted as Duck Prints Press endorsing these products.

[ya-pucking-nerd]

sabre and doodle - o. power

This fic is a part of @antoineroussel ’s winter 2k22 fic exchange.

Hello @bords !!! I am your mystery fic-writer ;) I am so excited to be your writer. I’ve had this idea in my head for a long time now, and I’m so excited that I was able to use it! I’ve decided to write this story from two different perspectives - Y/N’s and Owen’s. I think it gives the story more depth. Writing for Owen was never really an option for me before simply because I never payed him much attention, so thank you for inspiring me to broaden my horizons! Also, I have discovered that I am older than Owen Power by 12 days and I feel old :/

Disclaimer! I do not know anything about University of Michigan. I only googled the name of the library lol

One last thing, I decided to break this fic up into two parts. The deadline for the fic is creeping its way closer and I want to only give you my best. I have a whole plan for the rest of this fic, but I don’t want to give you a rushed ending - you don’t deserve that.

Word count: 4094 words

Warnings: I’m pretty sure it’s race-neutral (is that even a term? idk) so like I didn’t put any descriptive words about Y/N except that she uses she/her pronouns, some swear words but nothing hard core

Enjoy!

“Hey there! At long last, you’ve found the sticky note I placed here on 9/4/2021! Hopefully this book helps you out more than it did for me. This idea is sounding lamer and lamer, so I’m gonna leave it at that. If you want, you can leave your reply in this book :) ”

It was a folded little yellow sticky note sticking out of a book called Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. You had to snicker a little. The note was recent – today was 9/7/2021. Apparently, you and the mystery sticky note person had awful time management skills in common. Truth be told, you weren’t looking specifically at time management books. You were just exploring Shapiro Library because you had never been inside of it. Well, there was that “mini-golf through Shapiro Library” thing during freshman orientation, but you didn’t exactly pay attention, opting instead to finish as quickly as possible to get to the pizza on the top floor.

You dug through your bag, searching for any stray piece of paper you had. You found a pink index card and a blue pen. That’ll have to do.

“Hello mystery sticky-note leaver. I’m Y/F/N. I’m sorry the time management book didn’t help you. So... what year are you? What’s your major? Put your reply in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – it’s one of my favorites :)”

You smiled to yourself, satisfied with your note. You hoped the mystery note person would find it. Maybe it was just a little game to them. They put the note in as a joke, thinking it would stay there forever, or at the very least for more than three days. Regardless, you folded it up, tucked it safely between pages 1 and 2, took the original note with you, and walked away.

3 days prior...

“This is stupid,” Owen thought to himself. He was sitting in a study room on the third floor, math homework on his left side and an empty Google doc on his right for his economics class paper. He had hockey practice in an hour and a half and a night class after that. College was much more stressful than he thought it would be. He felt like he was never going to be able to get this all done. At this point, he was getting kind of desperate, so he decided to look for a time management book. Maybe they would give tips like a daily planner (which he already had) or perhaps something in the Reminders app on his phone.

Then, Owen realized he didn’t know anything about the library and where books were other than the author’s names were in alphabetical order. So, he went to the library aide. She directed him to the non-fiction floor and to look for books with the number 650.11 on the side. See, telling him to look for books with 650.11 on the side was easier said than done. He did eventually find it. Tucked in a corner with a window facing the stadium (ironic) were the books labeled 648-661. There were a few thick books that Owen didn’t really want to waste his time on. Then, he saw a small book by Oliver Burkeman that looked like it might be helpful.

The book proved not helpful. But by that point, Owen didn’t really feel like doing work. He had 13 minutes until he needed to leave the library, head back to his dorm room, grab his hockey gear, and head to practice. “Might as well use these,” he thought as he looked at the yellow sticky notes that he was going to use to write important notes down for his economics paper.

“Hey there! ...”

Back to the present...

You figured maybe the mystery sticky note person would never return your message. Or someone random who hadn’t written the first message would find your index card and throw it in the trash. What you didn’t expect was to see another yellow sticky note in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn the next time you went into the library.

The classes you were taking this semester hadn’t piled on the work yet, so you decided to browse through the library. You found yourself in the classics section a lot, finding comfort in the words of the greats like Mark Twain, Harper Lee, and John Steinbeck. This time, you came upon your favorite book from your high school English class and found a sticky note peeking out of the pages.

“Hey Y/N, you have really nice handwriting! My mom would be very impressed. You can call me Sabre. Kinda makes me feel like an international spy with a codename, which is the most fun I’ve had since getting here. And I’m a sophomore sports management major. What’s your major? Post your reply in one of my favorite books, The Giver by Lois Lowry. Signed, Sabre”

Sabre. Interesting. Why didn’t they want to give you their real name? You also wondered if a sabre could symbolize something in their life. Sabre like a saber-toothed tiger? Maybe they liked cats. Or it could be a saber, like a Star Wars lightsaber. They could be a Star Wars fan. But why spell it sabre instead of saber. There had to be a significance to that. You were a little confused at their choice of codename, but you played along. You dug out another index card and your blue pen, mind racing as you thought about what to write back. You weren’t sure what to expect with this... friendship? This guy... girl? was a sophomore. And a completely different major. You didn’t have anything in common with them – except poor time management skills. You would just have to wait and see. Upon finishing the note, you got up and strolled through the library, quickly finding the fiction section. As thankful as you were that Shapiro Library was this big and had this many resources, your feet were starting to hurt, and you hoped you found the book soon.

3 days later...

Owen was genuinely excited. His first year with the UMich hockey team went really well, to say the least. Despite it being the year of COVID, he managed to scrape together a damn nice resumé. He made the Big Ten All-Freshman Team, the second All-Big Ten Team, Rookie of the Year, Big Ten Freshman of the Year Finalist, and he led his team in blocked shots. But this time around, he had expectations to live up to. He was the “first draft of the 2021 NHL draft” guy. The very first one. Top selection. All of his achievements and the NHL draft meant that he was clearly a phenomenal hockey player. His coaches expected him to up his game. Umich hockey and Buffalo Sabres fans were expecting to see something spectacular out of him, and he was deathly afraid of disappointing them.

And, as guilty as he felt, it was nice to talk to someone who had no idea who he was. There were no expectations. Even if he would have told you just his first name, he could still be just Owen, but he didn’t want to live that dangerously. He didn’t bring up hockey with purpose, and he strongly doubted you would bring it up. His codename still kind of gave his identity away, but only to the extreme hockey fan. Maybe you would get confused with a Star Wars lightsaber or something like that (he was a Star Wars fan, anyway).

None of his teammates spent much time in the library. They all thought about playing Junior hockey, and some of the guys were drafted into the NHL, too. They partied hard, had their fun with girls, and did not put in a lot of work in terms of the academic side of college, but Owen knew that all it took was one bad hit on the ice, and his NHL career would be over before it even started. So, he took his studies pretty seriously.

Since leaving his last sticky note, Owen had been hanging around the library a little more than he’d like to admit. Meeting ... well, talking to you had been one of the few times that Owen felt he could ultimately be himself since entering college. Not the number one NHL draftee, not the Big Ten Rookie of the Year, not Big Dawg, just Owen. It was like a breath of fresh air, a glass of cold water, all the metaphors for feeling peaceful and relaxed.

Today, he genuinely had work to get done. Calculus was kicking his ass, and he absolutely could not afford to fail, especially with his hockey scholarship on the line. But first, he had to check the Lois Lowry book. At this point, he was getting a little scared that you had answered his sticky note out of pity and then completely forgotten about the whole thing. He wouldn’t be mad, exactly, but he’d be a little disappointed.

Strolling through the fiction section, he found the L’s. La. Le. Li. Lo. Loa. Lof. Lou. Low! The library had three copies of The Giver, and Owen was praying he found a pink index card inside one of them. In the first book, Owen didn’t find anything. He found an old bookmark in the second book, but nothing was written on it. The third book, he found it. He snatched it, returned the books to their proper place on the shelf, and rushed back to the study cubicle he reserved.

“Sabre? Well, in that case, call me Doodle. I’m a freshman business major. I’m taking the classes because I want to own a bakery one day. Why did you pick Sabre as a codename? Are you going to the football game next Saturday? Leave your reply in The Giver, too. I can’t think of another book. Signed, Doodle”

So, you decided to go along with the code names. Owen had never met someone so... God, what was the word. Open? Fun? All the girls who have ever approached Owen at a party or at the rink only wanted to talk to him because they heard he was slightly famous and a future NHLer. You still didn’t know about his future career, and he was certainly nervous if the day where you find out his identity would come, but for now, he liked just being Sabre and Doodle. The second thing Owen noticed was that you asked about the football game. So, his codename hadn’t given him away. Maybe you were an all-American girl who only cared about football and didn’t know the first thing about the NHL. Or maybe you only asked him because he told you he was a sports management major. Either way, it also showed an attempt to connect with him, meaning maybe you were enjoying this strange connection as much as he was. He dug out his pen, crafting his response to you.

6 days later...

The first person to find out about Sabre was your roommate, Carly. Unfortunately for you, the UMich rooms were set up so that your desks were next to each other, so Carly could easily see the sticky notes you collected. She confronted you as you got back from your art elective class.

“Sabre, huh? Who’s that?”

“Oh... Um... It’s a... It’s a friend, I guess,” you stammered back, caught off-guard. “How does one explain this one?” you thought.

“And have you ever met this ‘Sabre’?” she persisted.

“No, we’ve just been writing notes back and forth. Clearly, you read them; they’re harmless. Sabre is harmless.” you replied back, now getting upset that she read your notes. Yes, they may have been sitting out on your conjoined desks, but that didn’t give her any right to just read your stuff. You didn’t read through her bullet journal.

Carly crossed her arms across her chest and sighed. She brought her left hand to the bridge of her nose, sighing once again.

“Y/N, don’t you get it? What if it’s a creepy perv trying to lure you in and then kidnap you? Or what if....” At that point, you stopped listening. Carly could talk for hours if you let her. She was a journalism major and political science minor, so she absolutely loved to talk. You figured she would stop for air eventually. Besides, you didn’t really care about her opinion, especially considering you met her less than a month ago.

Finally, after being fed up with Carly’s nonsense about your “psychopath stalker library sticky note guy,” you picked up your bag, grabbed a textbook and your laptop, and walked out the door. And yes, maybe slammed the door to make a point.

At first, you thought about grabbing a slice of pizza from the North Quad and studying there. And, truth be told, it was nice, but no place was as beautiful as the library. So, you grabbed a slice of pizza to go and started walking towards the library, eating your pizza along the way.

It was probably a horrible idea to go to the library. If you found another sticky note, Carly would get super mad. But you trusted Sabre. They hadn’t given you a whole lot to go off, but it just seemed safe. You knew that if you ever found anything to be a little suspicious, you would snuff it out quickly. Carly’s doubts and warnings were starting to get into your head.

At first, you couldn’t remember the location of The Giver. Shapiro Library was so huge. Then, you remembered the staircase, so you thought upstairs might be your best bet. You hopelessly asked the library aide, who smiled sweetly and pointed to the next floor up and to the far right corner. You thanked her and rushed up. At this point, you weren’t sure if finding a note would make you feel better or worse, but you checked anyway.

You found the sticky note tucked between pages 34 and 35. Did the number 34 or 35 mean something to Sabre? Or, did they carelessly place it between the first two pages their fingers found? It was things like this that continued to intrigue you about Sabre. How much did they care? Were they leaving you subtle clues to their identity? Or were you just overthinking this like you tended to do?

You took the sticky note out and plopped yourself onto the ground right next to the shelf. 

“Dear Doodle, Sabre? Lightsaber? Star Wars? Come on... And yes, I went to the football game with some of the guys on my team. And also, if you want to own a bakery one day, I definitely want to stay friends with you. Chocolate chunk cookies are my weakness (and definitely not on my diet). And, since I am a sports management major, leave your reply in The Mamba Mentality by Kobe Bryant. Signed, Sabre”

And here he is, leaving you with more questions than answers.

So, Sabre was a guy. And, you were right about the Star Wars thing, but still confused about why he chose to spell it Sabre. And second, he had a team? What type of team? He could be fooling you and be on the football team. It technically wouldn’t be a lie because if he was on the team, he did technically go to the game with guys on his team.

You didn’t know him well, but he didn’t seem like the type of guy to fool you like that. He could be on the basketball team since he mentioned Kobe Bryant. But that would be too obvious – if he was trying to conceal his identity, he wasn’t doing a good job of it. Here you were overthinking again.

He even called you friends. And he wants you to bake him cookies. It’s a shame the communal kitchen in your dorm is disgusting, but you’d be more than willing to bake him chocolate chunk cookies once you get into a proper kitchen.

You were nervous to reply. What do you even say?

That very same day...

Owen was not having a great time. The hockey season was picking up, and midterms were about a week away. In the last game, Owen barely had ice time. And when he did, it just seemed like he couldn’t do anything right. He messed up easy passes, took way more hits than he was used to, and he broke a stick on a slapshot.

The only thing he was looking forward to at this point was going to the library and searching for a pink index card. He wasn’t even sure if the library had The Mamba Mentality. On the way in, he bumped into a girl, furiously texting on her phone.

“Oh god. I’m so sorry. I was texting my roommate and wasn’t looking!” She bent down to pick up her phone and the water bottle that miraculously hadn’t spilled. When she bent, Owen could have sworn he saw a yellow sticky note at the top of her bag, but he dismissed the idea, knowing that sticky notes were common among college kids.

“No problem, take it easy,” he replied.

The sports biographies and autobiographies were always Owen’s favorite part of the library. He knew where to look. The library didn’t have The Mamba Mentality, but a flash of pink caught his eyes in the place where it should’ve been.

“Sabre, Ok, so I was right about the Star Wars thing! I went to the football game with my roommate, but we got shitty seats because we were late. So, what sport do you play? I don’t play sports, really. I played volleyball for my high school, but I hated it. My parents made my play because my sister did. And I’ll totally get you those chocolate chunk cookies. Let me know where to leave them. Leave you answer in I am Malala by Malala. Doodle”

What if you were one of those crazy girls that look up the roster and then are investigative enough to figure him out. That’s a lot of ifs, but Owen wasn’t sure if he was prepared to take that risk. He liked the anonymity of the sticky notes in the safety of the library.

He thought carefully. He obviously didn’t want to dismiss the question entirely because you would probably just ask him again. He also didn’t want to answer. This was tricky.

Two of his teammates found him on his way from the library to practice. He would’ve preferred to be left alone, but he couldn’t tell his teammates without them asking him what was wrong. They would probably tell him he was being ridiculous. They didn’t really get it, and Owen wouldn’t have expected them to.

The boys walked to practice, fooling around and hitting each other with random leaves and twigs that littered the Quad on their way to the rink. Owen, however, had Airpods in both ears, with the volume turned to maximum. He knew he loved the sport of hockey and would never give it up, but at this moment, all he could think about was Y/N.

4 days later...

Carly was still giving you grief about the “situation” (as she called it). So, you did the most non- sensical thing possible and told your other friend, Gia. Gia was the type of friend who would do anything for you. Gia was the friend you would call if you found a dead body in a creepy alley and needed support as you called the police to report it.

“... So that’s basically everything. You don’t think I’m crazy, right?” you asked after explaining the whole thing to Gia. She just stared at you, mouth open like they do in cartoons.

“Y/N,” she said gently. “Have you considered that this guy may be acting so sweet just to, well, you know. Screw you over?”

Carly raised her arms above her head, shouting. “That’s what I said!”

You looked behind you at Carly and rolled your eyes. Why couldn’t your friends just be supportive of this friendship? Making real friends on a college campus with more than 44,000 students was so incredibly hard. Yes, finding that sticky note was a twist of fate, but continuing the conversation was intentional. You responded with enthusiasm, and it seemed that Sabre was, too.

Gia was looking at you as you were thinking things over.

“G,” you sighed. “It just doesn’t seem like that. I mean, you guys have both read those notes. It just seems so real. So natural. At this point, you hadn’t checked the library in a while. Suddenly, an idea popped into your head. “Guys, come one! We’re going to the library.” Your two friends looked at each other with the “she’s crazy, but I guess we’re responsible for her” look.

The three of you made your way into the library. When you opened the door to Shapiro Library, you did a quick scan to see if there were any people in the library. It was the Saturday after midterms, so you didn’t expect too many people. You only spotted three guys studying in the back left corner. Well, one was studying. You could see the second one hiding his phone behind his laptop screen while on a Zoom call, and the other was playing 2048.

The book you told Sabre to leave his next note in was actually on the shelf right behind the guys. You tiptoed your way back, and with every careful step you took, the old hardwood floors creaked louder and louder. They say silence is loud, but you would argue that attempting to tiptoe on old creaky hardwood floors was louder.

You picked up the book, found the sticky note, then put the book back. You missed the smirk on boy #2’s face as he watched you take the sticky note and sit down with your friends in a study cubicle.

“Doodle,

Well, football isn’t really my thing. We got shitty seats, too, but I’m not a huge football guy. And I’m not gonna tell you my sport, how about you guess? Besides, me telling you my identity kind of ruins the point of me having a codename ;) And if you leave chocolate chunk cookies outside of the window with the TikTok lights on the west side of Weller Hall, I will literally love you forever. Leave your answer in I am Malala. 

Sabre”

It wasn’t much, but he did give you a little more. So, he didn’t play football. And he was smart. He knew you would try to figure it out on your own. Also, he lives on campus. And while that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, it means you had a slightly smaller pool of people to investigate. You let all your friends read the note after you. While they read it and analyzed it, you found your pen and notecard.

On the other side of the library...

Owen watched the group of girls enter the library, and a small part of him wondered if you were one of them. He was a little anxious, wondering who you were. He obviously knew your name because you gave it to him before deciding to use codenames. Owen also had to exercise extreme self-control to not look you up on all forms of social media.

Then, he watched you walk up to the shelf that he had just put his sticky note in about 5 minutes ago. At the time, his friends laughed at him. Now, they were staring at Owen in shock. 

“Bro, she’s real?”

“I thought you had like an imaginary friend, or some ass gave you a fake name.”

“Thanks for the support, guys.” Owen had grumbled.

But now, he watched you read the note, brows furrowed as you concentrated. Then, you passed it off to your friends, and they read it more intensely than you did if that was possible. Your friends giggled, pointed to a bit, and then whispered some more about it. You were busy writing furiously, barely listening to your friends, let alone looking to the corner of the library. 

It was incredible to Owen how close he was, yet how far away. He could practically smell your perfume, but he couldn’t go up and say “hello”. At least not without scaring you. He wasn’t quite sure what to do. He just wanted to watch you leave the note and read it ASAP. And if you noticed him reading the index card, that was fine with him.

~

@bords I hope you enjoy it :)

[threetangerines]

3tan ask the author: part two

🍊 Choose a line, passage, or part for me to talk about and elaborate on here.

What’s the back story to 3tan, like how did you decide that this is what the plot is going to be and this is what I’m going to call.

ah, yes. the question to start all questions (on part two lol.) so the backstory is that i read "the window" by silvershine, and in one of the chapters, one character had to not eat an orange seed in order for their request to be made.

but since this story is completely different and a fic for yoongi, i wanted to make it tangerines and make the challenge something else (peeling it in one piece.) i loved peeling oranges in one piece when i was younger, so i immediately zeroed in on that premise!

but instead of one try, i had reader bargain with three tangerines - and those two words sounded quite magical put together. then when i thought of "3tan" as the shortened version to tag asks with, i thought even that sounded cool and easy to remember! so yeah, the title came from the bet that started everything. :'))

as far as the plot, the bet was just to create a space for tension while building up backstory between the characters. i knew it was gonna be mostly smut, but the story grew into something more than sex.

another note: i started this on my Notes app on new years 2021, then transferred it to a google doc maybe two weeks later? then didn't touch it for mooonths. my writing spark was kinda fading tbh..

i think i finally started working on it again in september? october 2021? once things started coming together, i couldn't stop writing. something clicked and writing was fucking fun again - contagious. i was excited to open docs for the first time in weeks.

it may be slightly cheesy or cliche or whatever, but 3tan kinda saved me, too.

what line/part would you like me to elaborate on?

[cameliawrites]

🛠 💖 and 🍦 for the ask game!

Sorry in advance for the long-ass answers here; I got overexcited! 😳🥹❤️

🛠 What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

Alas, I am but a simple woman—Google Docs for fics, always.

It’s actually a bit funny, because in my professional life, I hate Google Docs with a fury—Microsoft Word is a thousand times more conducive to the kind of persnickety formatting things I have to do to my legal writing.

But for fic writing, Google Docs lets me invite my friends to come leave comments on my WIPs (🥰), AND I have a very handy extension to convert all my formatting to HTML so I can easily copy and paste it into ao3!

I guess the only other “tool” I use for writing is my Notes app, because I often get ideas for fics or snippets of dialogue late in the night, out on walks, etc.

Just for a laugh, I’ll share this note from when I was drafting my oneshot “someone to watch over me” (& I always associate Winston with this fic for leaving SUCH a kind comment on it that melted my heart):

So I usually end up writing snippets of dialogue (without any punctuation 😅) and descriptions of scenes, and both of those things shown here ended up making it into the final cut of the fic!

Although I genuinely have no clue what this line—“Well I’m not; Inej mutters, and ignored the knowing grins as she stalked out of the room”—is referring to, because it didn’t make it into the published fic. And the tenses are all fucked up!

Sigh. 2:30 AM Lia is something else.

💖 What made you start writing?

Mmm, the boring answer is that I’ve been writing creatively since I was a child—typical sob story about not having very many friends in elementary school and becoming a voracious reader instead, etc. etc. (Don’t feel bad for me; I have been richly blessed in this life.)

The more interesting answer regards why I decided to start fic writing, which only happened this year.

I hadn’t written any sort of creative fiction since…early high school? Maybe? (Around age 14 or 15 or so) before this year, actually! I read the SOC duology about 5 or 6 years ago and loved the books (and I actually remember reading pretty much all the kanej fic that was available on ao3 at the time, lol). This past winter, I decided to do a reread and my kanej hyperfixation reawakened at the same time that law school just broke something in me—I was like, “legal writing is fucking HARD and the feedback is brutal. No silly fanfiction that I publish online is going to be as difficult or miserable as this.” …and it kind of killed off any fear or hesitation or self-doubt I had about diving in. 😂

Literally wrote the first fanfiction of my entire life at age 22 (and I already find it cringy, but I guess that means I’m improving? Lol), and now I’m nearly 70,000 words in and having the time of my LIFE doing it.

When I started, I was of course worried that nothing I wrote would be worth reading—but all of you lovely people have assuaged that doubt time and time again, and I can’t even begin to articulate the difference that’s made in my happiness this year. So thank you. 💗

🍦 What's the sweetest fic you've created so far?

I’m a sucker for fluff, so this question really is like asking me to pick the sweetest ice cream flavor.

I would say this little kanej kidfic, though. Everything I write is some level of self-indulgent, but this one is so absurdly saccharine that I can hardly believe I deigned to publish it. 😂 I try not to throw Kaz & Inej’s characterization out the window in favor of romantic tropes, but sometimes I toe the line, lol. I’m often mad at myself about it!

Sorry I’m such a marshmallow. 😅🤍

[graceshouldwrite]

Managing a Writing Account with School 

instagram: @ grace_should_write

Hey writers! How are you doing?

Here are some ways you can manage your writing Instagram account while juggling school, work, or other obligations you might have. 

I hope you find these helpful! 

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

1. Make a list of post ideas

Whether in Notion, Google Docs, some Notes app, or any other software that lets you edit text (heck, even a sticky notes pad or paper works), keep track of all your post ideas. 

This means that you’ll almost always have a surplus of IDEAS, so not coming up with a post idea doesn’t have to be a reason why you don’t post. 

Here’s an example of my post ideas list, which happens to be on Notion and doubles as a posting schedule: 

As you can see, the first row is what the post is. 

The second row is what type of post it is, which I have as either tips, memes, prompts, WIP posts, or issues (such as current events or important community phenomena). 

Finally, my post status bar is on the very right, where I track what posts I’ve done so far. 

I don’t have a “WHEN TO POST” tab personally (I find that I often decide what to post a day before I actually post, so I don’t really like these extra restrictions). However, if you’re a more rigid person, this could work for you! 

All in all, don’t make coming up with a post idea one inhibiting factor that prevents you from posting. There are many more hurdles to cross, unfortunately! 

2. Schedule time each day JUST to interact 

As weird as that sounds, mutual interaction is essential need if you want to grow. Unless you’re not looking to grow your writergram (which is completely valid, too), here are some things that will always increase your engagement, and thus, reach: 

leaving / replying to comments 

liking + sharing other people’s posts 

replying to DMs, stories, or just DMing people in general 

story games (i.e. polls, Q&As, etc) 

These are only a few examples, and as you may see, they won’t exactly happen on their own. In order to have a good amount of engagement in a day, you’ll have to interact quite a lot. 

This is why I like to have up to 20 minutes or even half an hour just to interact. For me, this time often gets filled up with study breaks, jogging breaks, or just any other time when I’m not really looking to do anything else.

By setting aside time to engage, you’ll be able to focus on your other obligations while still growing. 

Chances are, other people will be kind towards you and show your posts attention when you engage with theirs. Don’t feel intimidated by other accounts, and show them some love! Mutual interaction is one of the most surefire ways to grow :)

3. Work on a little bit of the post each day 

Just like writing a novel, or any other big project, doing EVERYTHING in a short amount of time may not be possible. ESPECIALLY when you already have a lot of other things on your plate. 

If you don’t have large chunks of time to set aside for making posts each day, do a little bit instead. 

As your busy-out-of-her-mind high school junior, I still find time to make at least weekly posts just by using this method. My typical method looks something like this:

Decide what the post will be and make the cover slide. Roadmap what the main points will be (this can be points for a tips post, or just logically sections for other types of posts) 

Work on the first half of the slides 

Work on the last half of the slides

Write the caption, proofread everything

As you can see, in four days or fewer, you can have a post ready. And because Instagram only allows for 10 slides per post, I know that I’ll never have more than 9 content slides to work on. 

So once you break it up, it becomes a manageable amount of work. 

4. Promote your account to your friends

You’re at school, and you’re surrounded by people who probably have instagram. So why not do some shameless self-promo?

Whether it’s subtly slipping in the plug while DMing, or mentioning it to one of your friends who likes to write, being surrounded by people gives you more opportunities to grow! (Of course, promoing in a non annoying way in appropriate occasions) 

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I hope you writergrammers found this helpful in any way, because these tips have really helped me manage my account with all of my obligations. 

Feel free to drop some questions, whether here, or through IG dms.

happy writing!

- grace <3